The disclosed embodiments relate to a medical device. Specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to a guide wire for delivering a stent that is housed within a catheter.
In a stent-placement procedure, a stent is expanded at a diseased site (for example, an occlusion site of a blood vessel) so that the diseased site is expanded from the inside, restoring blood flow. In such a procedure, the stent, which is housed inside a catheter, is delivered to the diseased site by being pushed forward out of the catheter by a guide wire.
A conventional guide wire used in such a procedure includes a press member. The stent is advanced through the catheter by pushing the stent from its proximal end with the press member. The conventional guide wire enables the stent to be drawn back in the proximal direction (to the side close to the technician) by a frictional force between the stent and an abutting member that is provided at a distal portion of the press member (a portion on which the stent is mounted). See Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-521022 (Translation of PCT Application).
However, there is a problem in the conventional guide wire described above in that the flexibility of the guide wire is impaired by being provided with the press member and the abutting member. As a result, it is disadvantageously difficult to deliver the stent to an end of a tortuous blood vessel.